I’m planning on meeting the owner of an art gallery to show her my work and hopefully have it in her gallery.
I draw pictures on regular drawing paper with graphite pencils. Do I just take my pictures the way they are in a portfolio without any sort of framing? Will the gallery frame the art themselves?
I’m new to this, so advice is appreciated. Thank you for your time!
I’m jumping in over my head here, but I have a few thoughts. It’s wonderful that you are going to meet with a gallery owner, a lot of artists don’t get that far for a long time. Have your portfolio set up professionally. I would suggest since your illustrations are in graphite, that it would make your portfolio look more polished if these pieces at least had a mat around them. This will finish off the look that you’re trying to show. I wouldn’t attach the mat permanently, but use an adhesive that will allow you to separate the mat from the drawing if necessary. If you have a few pieces to bring in that are already framed, that will help the gallery owner in getting a look at your artwork as a totally finished piece. But, you still need a good portfolio to support your work. I don’t know if the gallery would frame your pieces and what percentage of the sale they would take plus the cost of framing. They will work in a labor charge for framing as well I would think. So, this is something to talk about with the owner if they decide that they want to show your work. They may even refer you to a framing business that has done a lot of work for them. Ask a lot of questions, in fact, start making your list of questions up now in a separate binder. I would set these up in two columns, the question in one column and the second column to jot down their answer. Don’t go overboard with the questions, but you do want to know how to proceed. You could actually set up your binder in two sections, one with questions to the owner if they say you are not ready to show your work yet. Have questions ready like, where do you feel that I need to show progress in before I’m ready to show my artwork? Is there other subject matter that you feel would be more suitable for your gallery? I hope all this makes sense. I want to see you make the most of this meeting even if it turns out that you don’t have your work shown at this time. You may only need to tweak some minor details to get the gallery owner interested. Regardless of the outcome of the meeting, send a handwritten thank you note to the owner for taking the time to meet with you. This will show that you are the professional that you are and know how to conduct yourself in business situations. Good luck! I’ll be thinking about you and hoping for the best!
March 11th, 2010 at 5:14 am
You can show them to the gallery owner loose. If they require a frame then you can get one because usually they won’t show them for a week or two.
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March 11th, 2010 at 5:55 am
take in a mixture – your portfolio and some framed works
also – ask the owner what she wants – an exhibition? some works to sell on an ad hoc basis? you’re a salesperson now really! have some pre-prepared answers – on what themes you touch, what mediums you generally use, what previous training/qualifications you have..
xxx
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March 11th, 2010 at 6:19 am
I’m jumping in over my head here, but I have a few thoughts. It’s wonderful that you are going to meet with a gallery owner, a lot of artists don’t get that far for a long time. Have your portfolio set up professionally. I would suggest since your illustrations are in graphite, that it would make your portfolio look more polished if these pieces at least had a mat around them. This will finish off the look that you’re trying to show. I wouldn’t attach the mat permanently, but use an adhesive that will allow you to separate the mat from the drawing if necessary. If you have a few pieces to bring in that are already framed, that will help the gallery owner in getting a look at your artwork as a totally finished piece. But, you still need a good portfolio to support your work. I don’t know if the gallery would frame your pieces and what percentage of the sale they would take plus the cost of framing. They will work in a labor charge for framing as well I would think. So, this is something to talk about with the owner if they decide that they want to show your work. They may even refer you to a framing business that has done a lot of work for them. Ask a lot of questions, in fact, start making your list of questions up now in a separate binder. I would set these up in two columns, the question in one column and the second column to jot down their answer. Don’t go overboard with the questions, but you do want to know how to proceed. You could actually set up your binder in two sections, one with questions to the owner if they say you are not ready to show your work yet. Have questions ready like, where do you feel that I need to show progress in before I’m ready to show my artwork? Is there other subject matter that you feel would be more suitable for your gallery? I hope all this makes sense. I want to see you make the most of this meeting even if it turns out that you don’t have your work shown at this time. You may only need to tweak some minor details to get the gallery owner interested. Regardless of the outcome of the meeting, send a handwritten thank you note to the owner for taking the time to meet with you. This will show that you are the professional that you are and know how to conduct yourself in business situations. Good luck! I’ll be thinking about you and hoping for the best!
References :